130 SLT

130 SLT
from Josh Moore by Josh
For my birthday, and after several years of calling it 'too expensive of a hobby' ($500 = telescope, solar filter, eye pieces, ac adapter)...I finally bought a telescope for my birthday. It's a NexStar 130 SLT. When it arrived, and the next day extra eye pieces, then the AC adapter - 2 extra long days of waiting for power - it was time to view. Obviously around lamp posts I'm normally grateful for around the house, and so many other lights around, many DSO's (deep space objects) aren't as bright, but I had fun anyway. I'm learning leaps and bounds about each eyepiece, how the GOTO works (automatically moves the scope to the selected target), and many other things. But after a few days of really cloudy weather, a nice birthday gift was a clear sky. The moon was just gorgeous tonight, as was Jupiter and the 3 visible moons (for my telescope anyway). So many more stars were visible by the naked eye, and the texture on the moon was just amazing.

I think my next purchases will be an attachment ($12) to allow your digital SLR take pictures. My telescope isn't meant for longer than 30 second exposure pictures (telescope is constantly moving to keep the object in focus), but I'm sure in the next few years, after I buy another small telescope that doesn't require power to move the gears (or have GOTO), and a small camera/attachments, I'll eventually get a bigger telescope. It's sad I just bought one and I'm talking about another, but the small one should be <>

They say going to a location of no (at least much less) light pollution, you can see many more DSO's, brighter, and more clear. I didn't want to buy an external power tank or waste batteries, but I think I'll get two sets of rechargables. Our family lives on AA batteries anyway, and it'd be fun to take the scope to the big park, or every once in a long time, to a place where there are large locations of low light pollution. No picture can describe what you see through a telescope.

Tanner's bananas

My Tanner boy is not a fat baby, though he does look huge compared to his twin sister. But he has quite an appetite! I guess that's the way it is with boys. It's hard enough providing enough milk for two babies, especially when one is a little pig! I've been having a hard time keeping up with his demands lately so we gave in the other night and offered him some smashed up bananas. We were only 2 days before the 4-month mark so I figured it was alright. I didn't expect him to eat much his first time but he LOVED them! He would try to lunge at the spoon every time it got close and he'd scream if we were too slow getting his next bite. He ate almost a half a banana. Very impressive.

The Fly

My daughter, Sydney, calls all flies "fruit flies" ever since I explained to her about why we should not leave watermelon sitting around in the kitchen. Last night I was resting on the couch with my leg wrapped, elevated, and icing when a fly landed on my foot. My natural reaction was to shake my leg to get it off. So I did and it nearly killed me! It's still in quite a bit of pain from the surgery and I've been moving it as little as possible the last few days. So my impulse to shake my leg (which barely even moved) not only resulted in a huge amount of pain, but failed to get the fly off my foot. So I was screaming because it hurt and yelling, "Get it off! Get if off!" My mom, Josh, and Sydney were all looking at me like I'd lost my mind. They didn't know how badly I'd hurt myself. So today, I did something - I think I may have tipped over my water bottle or something like that - and I gave a little yell. Sydney comes running over and asks, totally serious and concerned, "What's wrong mama? Did a fruit fly get you?"

Twilight

Well I'm convinced that vampires are real now. Kinda like reading Harry Potter makes you think your a muggle and there are witches and wizards out there, you just don't know who they are. I'm only about 2/3 of the way through this book. It's been one of my sources of entertainment whilst I lay here on the couch all day, recovering. Now I highly recommend this book. It's been very fun to read. But every once in a while I roll my eyes at the mushy, sappy romance stuff. Do people really talk that way? I guess I'm not your typical emotional girl. Anyways, I find those parts slightly humorous at times. But it's been fascinating story and I think I'll just stay here in Utah where it's almost always sunny and I will never encounter a vampire.

ACL Reconstruction

I'm just throwing this little piece of advice out to the world. When you go snow skiing be sure your skiis are properly binded. If you can kick your skiis against the wall and they do not pop off they most likely will not pop off if you fall while skiing. This was my experience 8 years ago. I had just bought a season pass and with one spectacular fall the second time down the slope I was in the first aid room with a torn ACL. So I had surgery a couple months later to repair it. A couple years after that I had another surgery to clean out scar tissue that was causing some pain. On the 4th of July this year I slipped on the steps going out to our garage. I tore it again! So I just had surgery again yesterday. Now when I was 17 recovering from surgery was difficult but I only had myself to take care of. It's been a bit more challenging with 3 kids. Apparently they do the operation differently now and my recovering should be a bit faster. I'll be on crutches for 1-2 weeks and the doctor says he hopes I'll be running again in 2 months. I feel very lucky to have a mom who's been waiting on me hand and foot and a husband who is so good with the kids. However, I'm very much hoping this is the last time I bust this knee.

First Day of School

We quoted a lot of Finding Nemo on Tuesday -- "first day of school! First day of School!" Sydney was super excited about going to her first day of pre-school. It's hard believe I have a pre-schooler already. On her first day of school she learned about the color red, the number one, the letter A, and about alligators. She brought home an apple paper bag puppet. She was so proud of all her school work and practiced writing the number one for quite a while that afternoon. Her class is on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So the second day of school was supposed to be today. Unfortunately, Sydney woke up with pink eye this morning and had to miss school. She was so upset and cried on the way home from the instacare. We'll have to remember to tell her about that later on in life when she complains about having to go to school.

Surgery complete

After an hour of prep, and about three and a half hours of surgery and recovery, Lisa's knee surgery was complete. We're now at Lisa's parent's house being spoiled with lots of help with the kids and Lisa. I'll be working out here for the rest of the week, and am guessing we'll return home Sunday or Monday, depending how things go. Sydney is enjoying spending even more time with grandma and grandpa. I bought the book "Twilight" for Lisa for her recovery, and didn't have anything to read while waiting for her in the waiting room. So I picked it up, and am 130 pages into it. It's definitely a girl book, but it's very interesting. She has a very great writing style that fits the genre and the plot. Anyway, Lisa's upstairs watching "The Office" season 3, and I'm getting ready for bed. She's excited for her books, but was too excited for the new season of "The Office". Sydney goes back to school tomorrow and is very excited.